Destiny and Fate Part 1: A New Keyblader
by Ace Flyheight
Summary: Set 2 years after Sora has returned to Destiny Islands with Riku, a new keyblader is about to awaken. But, will this keyblader willingly accept his destiny? Rated T to be on the safe side because of some violence. OCs and Canons.
1. Chapter 1 The Next Keyblader

(Disclaimer: I'm only going to put the disclaimer on the first chapter here, but what it says, goes for every chapter. The property of Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square-Enix and Disney, but the story and my original characters are owned by me. Now, let's get on with the show.)

**Chapter 0**

**Prologue:**

Two long peaceful years have passed since the Keyblade Master, Sora, returned to Destiny Islands after eliminating the Organization and defeating the Heartless for a second time. On a group of islands about 90 miles from Destiny Islands called the Islands of Fate, a new Keyblader is about to awaken. In his bedroom in his small island home, a boy, who is almost a man, by the name of Ace has been dreaming of falling through darkness towards a platform just like he has for the past few days. Throughout his journey, he will be forced to grow up and will be thrust into circumstances that he could never have forseen.

Once again, history will repeat itself. Another Keyblader has been chosen to carry on the mantle and will not be able to go back to his life before he was chosen. He will learn to despise his position because of his duty but he must carry on, if just for the sake to show everybody that the keyblade has not disappeared for good quite yet.

**Chapter 1**

**The Next Keyblader:**

Ace looked down to see himself falling through the endless darkness. "What is this? Another dream?" He asked into the darkness as he saw a platform appear out of the darkness below him. He landed on the platform without any trouble at all and looked down to see a picture of Sora, Riku, and King Mickey with their individual keyblades pointed to the center of the platform. He glanced back up from the stained glass to see a sword, a shield, and a staff appear in a flash of light in front of him.

"_**Choose the weapon that calls out to your heart and choose the weapon that your heart tells you to give up." **_A voice called out from somewhere in the darkness.

"Fine...But answer me one question first: Who are you?" Ace asked, beginning to wonder why this dream felt so different from the ones before.

"_**I will guide you in your heart, but I will not tell you who I am…You will have to figure that out on your own."**_ The voice said in a tone that seemed to embody authority and wisdom.

"Okay, even though I still wish that you would tell me who you are." Ace muttered under his breath as he walked over to the sword and picked it up, feeling its weight in his hand as it remained in his hand. He then walked over to the staff and saw it disappear as soon as he touched it, as if his heart had rejected the weapon.

"_**So you wish for the power of the warrior to attack those who wish to hurt you or the ones that you care about and you wish to give up the power of the mystic." **_The voice said again, seemingly questioning Ace's decision.

"Yes." Ace answered as he saw the sword disappear and become replaced with a giant key. He looked down at the key and saw that it had two angel wings on the sides of the handle from the bottom of the handle to the top of the handle and then had two more angel wings that spiraled around each other as well as around the blade itself and stopped at the key part. The weapon then had three smaller, crimson-colored angel wings that protruded from the blade to form a key shape at the tip.

"_**Keyblade...keyblade." **_The voice repeated as the word echoed around Ace.

"This is a keyblade?" Ace asked to himself as he tried to strike with the keyblade and saw it disappear from his hand just as quickly as it had originally appeared.

"_**Blazing Angel...Just reach out with your heart and it will appear to aid you." **_The voice said in a commanding tone.

Ace straightened his arm out and reached out with his heart and saw the keyblade, Blazing Angel, appear in a flash of light in his hand.

"_**Watch out! The Heartless have appeared. Be careful!"**_ The voice said, in a slightly worried tone, as black shadow-like beings materialized around Ace.

Ace looked around himself and saw the Heartless, or whatever they were called, all around him. He grasped his keyblade in both hands and charged at the first Heartless and took it out in one easy slash, but saw the second one blend into the floor before he could hit it. "What is that thing doing?" Ace asked to nobody in particular as the Heartless sprang out of the floor towards him, but not before his reflexes took over and he sliced the Heartless completely in half. He continued fighting for another minute or two and finished off the remaining Heartless without too much trouble, even though he was beginning to breathe a little harder.

Ace then looked in front of him, and saw a door with ornate and regal-looking patterns appear in front of him on the platform. The keyblade disappeared from his hand as he stepped towards the door and slowly pushed it open.

As soon as the door opened, a bright light rushed out and caused Ace to put his arm over his eyes to block out the blinding light. A second later, the light began to fade away as he put his arm down and looked around to find himself back on the beach on his island and three figures standing in front of him. _'This...This is my island. This is the beach that Sarah, Tai, and I always played on ever since...well, as far back as I can remember.'_ Ace thought as he looked closely at the three people in front of him. One was a boy with dark blonde hair, whom Ace recognized as his best friend Tai. The second person was a girl with long, dark blue hair that he recognized as his other best friend, Sarah. But, the third person was someone who he had never seen in his entire life. The third person had silver hair that went a little past his shoulders and held the air of someone who had seen horrors that nobody should have to see.

"_**Hold on. The door won't open just yet. First, tell me a little about yourself."**_ The voice said as Ace noticed that the three people in front of him seemed like nothing more than lifeless dolls.

Ace walked over to Tai first. "What do you want out of life?" Tai asked in an emotionless tone.

"To become stronger." Ace answered as he thought about the intense rivalry that had always been present between Tai and himself.

"Is strength that big of a deal?" Tai asked.

Ace walked over to Sarah next. "What's important to you?" Sarah asked in an emotionless tone like Tai's.

"Protecting those I care about." Ace answered as he remembered the feelings that he had for Sarah ever since she came to the islands a few years ago.

"Is protecting people really that important?" Sarah asked.

Lastly, Ace walked over to the unknown person. "What are you afraid of?" He asked in a tone similar to the others.

"The darkness." Ace answered as he thought about the monsters that had come from the darkness earlier and all the stories that he had ever heard of.

"_**You want to become stronger. You want to protect those you care about. You are afraid of the darkness. Your adventure begins at dawn. Keep a strong, steady gait throughout your journey and you will be okay."**_ The voice said.

'_That sounds about right_._'_ Ace thought. Then another flash of light brought him back to the platform. Ace then saw a staircase appear in front of him that lead towards another platform above him. He began running up the stairs and reached the platform at the top. As he walked to the center, his shadow began to grow longer, until it completely separated from him and turned into an exact replica of Ace. "Who...Who are you?" Ace asked as he heard the voice once again.

"_**Don't be afraid...Even though the closer you come to Light, the greater the Darkness becomes; you can still defeat it if you truly have the will to fight and survive." **_The voice said.

"I am the darkness that is inside of you Ace...The darkness that can't be destroyed, even by that accursed weapon." Ace's shadow sneered as he summoned a darker and corrupt version of the exact weapon that Ace had received.

"Shut up!" Ace yelled as he summoned his keyblade back to his hand and grasped it tightly with both hands as he charged at his shadow.

Ace and his shadow deflected the majority of the other's attacks for several minutes. A few minutes later, Ace jumped back a few feet after he received a bone-crushing blow to the shoulder that nearly dislocated the bone in it and had nearly caused him to scream out because of the pain.

"I've got to admit, you're strong. But that doesn't mean that I will lose to you." Ace said as he struggled to stand up but felt his knees starting to give out on him.

"You will never win. This is where I kill you." Ace's shadow said as he disappeared and reappeared in front of Ace with his keyblade poised to strike.

As the keyblade came down on Ace, his reflexes took over and he suddenly jerked his keyblade up above his head as soon as the other keyblade was about to reach his head and put his other hand on the blade to help deflect the keyblade.

"What the heck?" Ace's shadow yelled as his strike was parried and Ace jumped up above him and sliced his keyblade straight down his body, killing him. Ace then jumped backwards and saw the keyblade disappear from his hand.

"I did it. I actually beat him." Ace said as he grimaced in pain from his shoulder injury.

"_**I guess that I made a good choice when I chose you to wield the keyblade. Soon the Heartless will attack and you will need to be ready, Ace. You will meet the other keyblader soon. His name is Sora...Even though you will encounter many enemies and many obstacles, remember: There will always be a door to the light..." **_The voice said as it faded away.

"Okay I understand." Ace said as he felt himself falling into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2 The Next Day

**Chapter 2**

**The Next Day:**

Ace suddenly jerked up in his sleep, and brushed the bed sheets away from him as he thrashed around for a second. He looked around quickly and then looked down at his sweat soaked body. "Was that a dream? It felt so real." Ace whispered to himself as he swung his feet off of the bed and stood up next to his bed. "Well, only one way to tell I guess." Ace said as he reached out with his heart and the keyblade appeared in his hand. "So it really wasn't a dream." Ace muttered to himself as the keyblade disappeared from his hand again. Ace shrugged his shoulders a little and walked towards the bathroom and began to take a shower, to try to wash all of the sweat off. About 15 minutes later, he walked back out of the shower, drying his hair off. Ace laid the towel down on the floor as he walked over to his closet and got his clothes out. He put his blue-toned cargo pants on, as well as his whitet-shirt, before he slipped his dark blue windbreaker jacket on, but left it unzipped as he walked towards his door, pulling his white gloves on his hands at the same time. He walked through his door and locked the door as he walked outside into the blazing heat. _'I guess that I might as well meet up with the rest of the group.'_ Ace thought to himself as he put his gloved right hand over his cloudy blue eyes as he looked at the sun high up in the sky, as he continued walking towards the beach.

As Ace was walking towards the beach, he messed his neck-length dark brown hair up somewhat, for the messy look he tried to achieve every day. He finally stopped walking as he reached the beach and saw his friends waiting for him, down by the water. He began running towards the water and blinked a little in the heat as he saw Tai, sitting on a branch in a nearby tree that directly overlooked the sun in the morning and evening. Ace then looked a little lower and saw Sarah sitting on the sand at the base of the tree that Tai was sitting on. He slowly walked up to both of them and knew that Tai had seen him, because of the slight wave of his arm up in the tree, but was sure that Sarah hadn't seen him at all. "Hey guys." Ace said from directly right behind Sarah, as he saw her jump a little from the surprise.

"Hey there Ace, what took you so long?" Tai asked as he smirked down at Ace.

"And why do you always have to scare me like that, Ace?" Sarah asked, smiling a little as her heart rate began to come back down to normal.

"Tai, you know that I'm not a morning person." Ace said as he reached up and grabbed one of the branches above his head and he pulled himself up on top of it. "And it's just kind of fun for me." Ace continued, grinning a little as he turned towards Sarah.

Sarah got up from the sand and brushed the sand off her clothes as she got up on a branch next to Ace and playfully socked him in his shoulder.

"Ow." Ace said as he pretended to be hurt as he rubbed his shoulder from where Sarah had hit him.

"That was for saying that it was fun for you." Sarah said as another smile began to play on her lips, as she pushed her dark blue hair back away from her face.

Ace leaned back on the branch a little as he saw Sarah's smile and put his hands behind his head. "Hey guys, I've been thinking..." Ace said but stopped as he was suddenly interrupted by Tai.

"Never a good thing." Tai said, smirking a little.

"Oh come on Tai, don't be like that." Ace said as he pretended to be hurt, except for a little smile on his face. "Well, I was thinking about the three of us heading over to Destiny Islands for a little while to have some fun. Also, to see what the islands are like, considering the fact that we haven't ever visited them even though Sarah used to live there before she moved here." Ace continued.

"For once Ace, you actually seem to have a good idea." Tai said.

"Yeah I guess that I did...Wait, that wasn't fair." Ace said, a little ticked off but he got over it after a moment.

"I'm just kidding with you." Tai said, laughing.

Sarah giggled a little at seeing Tai ticking off Ace like always. "Hey Ace, I think that it's a great idea." Sarah said as she slid off the branch and landed on the sand without any trouble and brushed a little sand off from her clothes. "I'll meet up with you two at the dock later. I need to go get ready first." Sarah said, smiling at Ace as she started waving at the two of them as she left and headed back to her house.

Ace and Tai waved back at her until she was out of sight.

"I got to go as well and get ready." Tai said as he got off of his branch and landed on the sand as well, but turned around and looked at Ace for just a moment. "Ace, if you really like Sarah that much you should tell her that you like her because who knows, I might just take her for myself one of these days." Tai said with a serious look visible on his face.

"Hey wait a second, but I don't..." Ace said, beginning to turn red, as he jumped off of his branch as well and landed on the sand.

"I'm just joking with you. Man, you are so gullible sometimes." Tai said as he grinned and laughed a little at Ace before he began to run off towards his house.

Ace looked over his shoulder at the ocean as he began running back towards his home as well. "I guess that I'll try and just have to hope for the best with Sarah once we get to Destiny Islands. But, I'm still wondering about what Tai said...Whatever, I need to worry more about the trip later right now." Ace said, sighing a little as he tried to push what Tai said out of his mind. After a short while of running, he finally reached his home and began to get ready for the trip.

A few hours later, the three of them met up at the dock and saw the ship about ready to leave port. "Oh, before I forget: I already got the tickets." Ace said as he pulled three tickets out of his jacket pocket and held his hand out so that Tai and Sarah could grab theirs.

"Thanks for the ticket, Ace." Sarah said as she took hers from Ace's hand.

"See you on board you two." Tai said as he grinned at the two of them as he took his ticket from Ace's hand and walked up the plank and onto the deck before disappearing into the crowd.

Ace sighed a little at Tai's grin before he noticed Sarah walking up the plank and then began to follow behind her.

As she walked onto the deck, Sarah walked over to the ship's railing and put her hands on the rail as she stared out at the ocean as they set sail.

Ace walked up next to her and laid his hands on the rail as well and stared out at the ocean.

"Hey Ace. Let me guess: You followed me just so that you wouldn't have to put up with all the other people on this boat, am I right?" Sarah inquired as she saw Ace walk up next to her and look out at the ocean just like she was doing.

"Hi Sarah. Yeah, I guess that you could say something like that." Ace replied as he tried to not look at Sarah, afraid that he might blush and make a fool of himself if he did. Ace and Sarah continued staring at the ocean for a while until they began to see Destiny Islands in the distance. The two of them continued staring at the main island for a little while just enjoying the view, until they finally reached the dock at the main island and heard a person's voice on the intercom system.

"We have arrived at Destiny Islands. Everybody please get off now in an orderly fashion." A voice said on the intercom.

"Well, we're here. Let's go and meet up with Tai." Sarah said, grinning at Ace as she turned around and began to walk away.

"Yeah, he's probably waiting for us." Ace said as he began walking away as well and they both got off the ship and met up with Tai at the bottom of the ramp.

"So...Did you two have a nice time without me interrupting?" Tai asked, a slight smirk forming on his face.

"Stay out of it, Tai." Ace and Sarah said at the same time as they looked at each other's face and laughed.

"I'll take that as a yes. I'm going to see you two later, I'm heading into town for a while." Tai said, waving a hand in the air as he walked away into town.

Ace and Sarah saw Tai leave and began to head towards a hill that was visible in the distance. A few minutes later, Ace and Sarah reached the hill and sat down under the single, solitary tree that stood at the top of the hill. "Ace, look at the sunset. It's beautiful, isn't it?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, it is beautiful. I didn't realize that it took this long to get to Destiny Islands, but well, I guess that we arrived at the perfect time to see a Destiny Islands sunset." Ace said as he watched the sun set over the ocean. _'...But, even the sunset is not beautiful as you, Sarah.'_ Ace thought to himself as the two of them suddenly heard a scream in the distance and saw the buildings being engulfed in flames and black creatures attacking everybody. _'Those are the things from my dream. The Heartless things that voice mentioned. If they're here, I wonder...could that other person, Sora, also be here?'_ Ace thought to himself as he pushed the thoughts away. "Sarah, wait here for me, okay?" Ace asked as he got off of the ground. "I've got to go help everybody that's still down there in the town. I can't stand by and watch it happen. I'll be back soon." Ace continued as he wondered what Sarah would say.

"Ace, I'm going to trust you on this and stay here...But one thing: Don't you dare go and get yourself hurt because I know how much you like to whine like a little kid everytime that you always get hurt. So promise me that, okay?" Sarah asked, worry beginning to creep into her firey eyes.

"When do I ever get hurt?"Ace asked, grinning. "And for the record, I don't whine like a little kid."Ace finished as he began running down the hill and summoned Blazing Angel to his hand as he jumped into the blazing inferno.

"I wonder, what was that weird thing that appeared in Ace's hand?" Sarah asked to nobody in particular as she leaned back against the tree, waiting for Ace to come back. "I hope that he'll be okay. No, I'm sure that he'll be okay somehow." Sarah said a few minutes later, trying to be more confident that Ace would be okay.

Ace jumped through the inferno and landed right in the middle of a group of Heartless that he completely destroyed before any of them realized that he was there. As he slashed through one that saw him, he saw another young man like himself who looked like he was around his age, holding a keyblade in his hand as well. Ace watched the young man's movements and realized that this person had probably been fighting these creatures for a couple of years or something. Ace noticed the person come a little closer to him and that gave him a glance at the person's brown, spiky hair and blue eyes. _'Could that be Sora?'_ Ace wondered to himself as he ran over to the young man and slashed through a Heartless that was behind him. "Hey, are you Sora?" Ace asked.

"Yeah, that's my name." Sora said as he killed another Heartless that had jumped in front of him. "What's your name?" Sora asked as he did a backflip and swung at a Heartless behind him.

"I'm Ace." Ace said as he sliced another Heartless in half and watched it fade back into the darkness that it had come from.

"So you have a keyblade as well?" Sora asked as he sliced another Heartless with the Kingdom Key.

"Yeah, I got it in a weird dream last night." Ace said as he brought Blazing Angel in front of him.

"Can you hold the Heartless off for a moment while I get rid of this fire?" Sora asked as his keyblade began to glow a little.

"Sure." Ace said as he dashed through the Heartless, killing several and barely dodging a few quick slashes from a few of the Heartless.

"Aeroga!" Sora yelled as a mighty blast of wind hit and blew the flames out as well as killing the remaining Heartless.

"Cool." Ace said as he walked back towards Sora, with his keyblade at his side, but still in his hand.

"Thanks for the help, Ace." Sora said as his keyblade disappeared.

"Thanks for your help too Sora, and could you tell me what the heck all this is about?" Ace asked as his keyblade disappeared into thin air as well.

"Sure Ace. Even though I don't have a clue about some of the stuff that you're probably wondering about." Sora said as he explained about the keyblade and the Heartless among other things.

Ace then remembered about Sarah. "Sorry, but I need to go. I've got to make sure that somebody's still safe. I'll see you later, Sora." Ace said, interrupting Sora's explanation and began to run off towards the hill.

"Ace, meet me at the beach in a little while if you can!" Sora yelled as Ace ran off, but he noticed Ace waving his hand in the air, showing that he heard him.

Ace reached the hill after a few minutes, still exhausted somewhat from the strain of the battle against the Heartless, and saw Sarah still waiting for him. "Sarah, I'm sorry about having to leave like that." Ace said as he sat back down next to her. "But, I did make it back without a single stratch though." Ace continued, laughing a little.

Sarah smiled a little. "Yeah, you did make it back without getting hurt for once. Don't be sorry about leaving like that. You had to do what you felt like you had to." Sarah said. "Now, would you mind telling me about everything that just happened?" Sarah asked.

"Sure Sarah." Ace said as he began to try to explain as good as he could considering the fact that he had never been really good at explaining anything.

"Wow, but it seems so weird." Sarah said, trying to comprehend everything that Ace had just said.

"I have to agree, it is pretty weird, and it looks like I'm one of these so called Keybladers as well." Ace said as he looked down at his hands for a second.

"That reminds me, did you see Tai at all while you were there fighting those creatures?" Sarah asked, beginning to become worried about Tai.

"Actually no, I never saw him. But, I'm sure that he made it out of the town without any injuries and probably looking for us right now." Ace said, wondering if what he just said was the truth or if he was just hoping against hope that Tai was still alive.


	3. Sub Chapter 2 Tai's Darkness

**Sub-Chapter 2**

**Tai's Darkness:**

While Ace and Sora were fending off the Heartless, Tai was doing his best to get away from a group of Soldier Heartless that had been running after him ever since they had seen him walking away from Ace and Sarah. Tai reached a dead end in the street and turned around and stared at the Heartless as they began to walk closer towards him. As the Heartless lunged towards Tai, he felt himself being engulfed in darkness and landed on top of a hard, stone conference table in the middle of a dark room. Tai looked around the table as he got off of it and saw a single figure watching him from the opposite side of the table. "Where am I?" Tai asked, leveling his eyes on the figure as his thoughts began to go back to Ace and Sarah. _'This is definitely not Destiny Islands, so that means...Where's Ace and where's Sarah? They're not here...If they're still back on Destiny Islands and those creatures are still attacking...' _Tai wondered quickly to himself as he was brought out of his thoughts by the voice of the figure.

"You're in Radiant Garden, my dear boy." The figure said, who resembled an evil witch but had a motherly tone to her voice compared to her appearance.

"Radiant Garden...Why did you bring me here? What about everybody else on Destiny Islands? Those creatures are probably killing everybody...Ace...Sarah..." Tai asked, a few tears beginning to leak out of his eyes.

"There is no reason for you to worry about your friends or anybody else for that matter. Those creatures, the Heartless, were killed through the efforts of two people and one of them was your friend Ace." The woman said as she walked up to Tai and softly laid her hand on his shoulder.

A small sigh of relief was breathed by Tai as he listened to this woman's words. _'They're actually safe. I'm glad for all of them, but how was Ace able to kill those things and kill so many at that? I guess that he actually surpassed me, but when I see those two again, there's no way that I'm going to admit that to Ace for sure.'_ Tai thought as his body began to relax a little from the stress of worrying.

"But, before we go on, my dear boy, Tai. My name is Maleficent and as for how I know your name, there is no need to worry about that." The woman, Maleficent, said as a sad smile began to cross her face, even though her eyes held a different kind of smile. "The main reason that I brought you here was to talk to you about your so called _'friends'_." Maleficent added after a moment.

"Ace and Sarah? Why do you need to talk to me about them?" Tai asked, not liking where this discussion was going.

"You see, my child, I have been watching you for a long time, like a mother watching over her child. I was there cheering you on when you won your first tournament and I was even there during all the nights when you would stay up into the early morning doing nothing but training on the beach." Maleficent said.

"All of those times, that was you? I guess that it makes sense, since I always felt like I had somebody watching over me like a guardian angel." Tai said, before remembering something that Maleficent had mentioned only a moment ago. "Now, what did you mean by needing to talk to me about Ace and Sarah?" Tai asked.

"My child, I really didn't want to have to tell you this but you see...Ace and Sarah never truly cared about you or what you did for them. All the sacrifices you made for them, the training that you did to make Ace a better fighter, none of it mattered to either one of them. All of those times that I was watching over you, all I could do was weep when I saw either one of them coming towards you. I'm sorry that I never did tell you this before now, but I wanted to wait until I could get you away from them to tell you this." Maleficent said.

"But they wouldn't...They just wouldn't throw me away like that." Tai said, as a few tears began to streak down his face. _'There's no way. After everything that I've done for the both of them, everything that I've had to sacrifice just to let those two get closer and to help Ace become a stronger person...'_ Tai thought as he began to struggle with his own thoughts.

"Tai my child, if you want proof then look here." Maleficent said as multiple holograms of Ace and Sarah started playing all the way across the table, but she began to manipulate the darkness in Tai's heart to make sure that he saw something completely different. She made sure that Tai wouldn't see what was truly there, but only what she wanted him to see. She would have a new puppet very soon, she only had to manipulate him just a little bit closer to the edge and then she would have him in her hands. "See Tai, they don't care about you at all. I can give you the power that you want to have to get back at them." Maleficent said, with a strong hint of motherly sympathy and care in her voice as she grinned inwardly at the sight of more tears beginning to flow from Tai's eyes.

"Okay. I'll take it. Please give it to me." Tai said, almost pleading as he clenched his hands hard until blood began to seep out from his hands because of how hard he had clenched them_. 'Everything that I did...Everything that I did for the both of them. For Ace and Sarah. Everything that I did, all of it...They just threw it all in my face. They never cared about what I did for them. They...I'm going to get them back for this.'_ Tai thought as he began to grin a little, the darkness in his heart finally pushing him over the edge and into Maleficent's waiting hands.

"I'm glad that you finally made the right decision my child." Maleficent said, a wicked smile appearing on her face as she raised her staff and granted Tai control over the darkness.

Tai didn't move at all as a dark aura began to form around him and his clothes changed to a reddish-black Heartless uniform that seemed to fit his body perfectly. Tai then grimaced a little and fell to the ground in pain as his back began glowing and the clothes seemed to stretch a little. Tai suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream as two crimson colored wings tore through the clothes on his back and stretched out to their full lengths. The wings seemed to stretch out about five feet from his body and seemed to be dripping blood. By the time that the wings had stopped dripping their blood, a puddle had formed around Tai and he was still breathing hard as he tried to recover from the intense pain.

Maleficent's wicked smile began to spread further across her face as she observed the bloody wings and Tai's anguish. She truly had him in her grasp now, she would not be betrayed this time.

After a few minutes, Tai's breathing finally began to return to normal and the pain in his body began to lessen somewhat. He grimaced a little as he forced his arms under him and began to push his body up off of the floor. Tai finally got up enough to stand on his feet and he began to stumble a little until he was able to focus enough on his legs to be able to stand up right. He then brought his hands up in front of him as he stared at his now shaking hands. As he stared, a small smile seemed to appear on his face as his hands began to stop shaking. "This power...It feels so good..." Tai whispered to himself as his wings moved a little, causing the blood left on them to be flung everywhere around the room and stain the entire stone room crimson.

"That's not all, Tai. You also have a new weapon to go along with your new power." Maleficent said, motioning for Tai to stretch his hand out.

Tai slowly stretched his hand out in front of him and saw a key-shaped weapon of pure darkness form in his hand. "What's this?" Tai asked in amazement as he began to observe the weapon's shape and size. It had a split shaft design for the blade part itself and the key part was made up of three curved spikes covered in minituare spikes, giving off the look and feel of thorns.

"It's a keyblade known simply as Oblivion's Wrath. It has the power to unlock a person's heart and open your own heart up to the full power of darkness." Maleficent said.

"Thank you, Maleficent." Tai said as the keyblade disappeared in his hand and he turned around and began to walk towards the wall, when suddenly a dark portal opened and he walked through it. _'I would have gladly sacrificed my own life to help either one of them, but as it turns out, they wouldn't do that for me. Well, it's time for me to force them to sacrifice themselves for me, starting with Sarah. She always was the weakest one out of the three of us. If I get rid of her, that'll break Ace's spirit. I really want to make sure that when I get rid of him, that Sarah's death will weigh on his soul when he goes to his grave.'_ Tai thought as he actually smiled at the chance to show them that he was not a person that they should have thrown away like that.

"No, my boy. Don't thank me, I'm just giving you what you always wanted deep down." Maleficent said, with a wicked almost demonic smile on her face as she saw Tai disappear into the darkness.


	4. Chapter 3 Friendship or Duty

**Chapter 3**

**Friendship or Duty:**

"I'll see you later. I'm going to head back to down to the town for a little while. I kind of want to stretch my legs a little and see if I can maybe find Tai." Sarah said as she got up and walked off.

"I'll see you later as well Sarah, I have to head to the beach to talk with someone and then I'll catch up with you and help look for him. He should have been back by now and found us." Ace said as he walked off as well, but in the opposite direction towards the beach.

Ace arrived at the beach a short while later and saw Sora waiting for him near the water. "Hey Sora, I'm here. What did you need me to come here for?" Ace asked as he stopped a few feet away from Sora.

"Well, you're a keyblader like I am and well... I needed to ask you if you were prepared to fight anybody who was on the side of the Heartless." Sora said, turning around to face Ace.

"I'm certain that I could." Ace said. He was sure that he wouldn't have any trouble going through with that, considering that anybody that was allied with those creatures had to be evil or something.

"That's good to hear because I had trouble following through on that once before." Sora said as he sighed a little.

"Why did you have trouble?" Ace asked.

"Well, my friend Riku was turned to the darkness partly because of me..." Sora said as he began to tell his story.

"Whoa...That must have been rough on you." Ace said, thinking about everything that Sora had just told him.

"Well, I just felt like I had to ask you that. I'll see you later. I promised somebody that I would meet back up with them after I got finished talking to you." Sora said as he began to leave, but turned back and waved at Ace before he disappeared from view.

"Ok, hope to see you again sometime soon Sora." Ace said as he turned to look the moonlit water that extended as far as the human eye could see. He needed to go and meet up with Sarah soon so that they could go and look for Tai.

After a few moments, Ace heard something coming from behind him. He turned around quickly and saw a dark portal appear and saw Tai step out of it before it disappeared. "Tai!" Ace said as a relieved smile spread across his face. "Tai, you're okay." Ace said as he walked over to Tai. As he walked nearer to Tai, Ace thought that he saw something extending from Tai's back but he shrugged it off. It was probably just his imagination, it's not like he would be able to see what it was anyway because of the fact that the moon had disappeared behind the clouds just a few minutes beforehand.

"Ace...Get away from me." Tai said in a low and cold voice.

Ace stepped back a few steps. "Tai, what's wrong with you?" Ace asked as he began to feel kind of weird. He was starting to feel cold even though the nighttime air was still warm.

"There's nothing wrong with me." Tai said, looking off towards the moonlit ocean.

"Then, why are you acting like this?" Ace asked, starting to become irritated with Tai.

"What do you think? You and Sarah just cared about each other; you two didn't even give me a second thought. I was always the one that you two came to when you needed help or something. Then, when I needed help, neither one of you would do anything to help me!" Tai said as a growl began to appear in his voice.

"That's not true." Ace said as he took a few steps forward and tried to keep his cool. He really didn't have a clue about what was wrong with Tai, but he defintely didn't have a good feeling about it.

"I saw it with my own two eyes. That's why I agreed to allow Maleficent to imbue me with the powers of darkness." Tai said as he finally looked back at Ace and stared at him for a moment.

Ace froze in place for a second._ 'Sora told me that I would have to be prepared to fight anybody who was on the side of the Heartless, but I can't possibly attack my best friend...There's just no way that I can...I just can't...Not after everything that's happened to the three of us...I...can't attack him.' _Ace thought to himself as he began to struggle about what to do. After a few moments, the moon began to appear in the sky again and cast its bone white glow across the beach. As Ace continued looking at Tai, he finally saw what was behind Tai. It was two blood red wings. "Tai...Tai, what happ—" Ace began as he was interrupted by Tai.

"Shut up Ace, just shut up! I only came back to take care of a little business." Tai said, smiling a little as a second dark portal opened up and Sarah came stumbling out of it, weak and frail.

"What did you do to her, Tai?" Ace asked, a shocked look appearing on his face as he rushed over to Sarah to see what was wrong with her.

"Ace..." Sarah whispered softly as she heard his voice even though she was still falling towards the ground.

Ace reached her right before she was about to hit the sand and cradled her in his arms. "Sarah...Sarah, please tell me that you're okay." Ace pleaded, tears streaming down his face as he saw her smile at him and felt her beginning to disappear from his arms. "Don't go yet, Sarah. You can't just die like this. I know that you're stronger than this, come on...Don't die on me like this...Sarah." Ace pleaded again and again as he continued to cradle her in his arms.

Sarah grimaced a little as she began to disappear, but she did everything she could to smile at Ace through her pain. She tried to say one last thing to Ace, but nothing would come out. She was just too weak now to say anything.

After a few moments, Ace saw what was left of Sarah disappear into orbs of light that seemed to fade away in his arms. He suddenly collapsed onto the ground, his tears mingling with the sand that he was now covered in and his fists pounding the rough sand to the point of his fists bleeding and mixing with the sand and his tears.

Tai began to laugh as he observed the scene playing out before him.

"What's so funny, Tai?" Ace asked as he yelled the question at Tai.

"It's just so funny that you care so much about someone as weak as her. She couldn't even stand up to me when I told her that I was coming after you. All I had to do was just smack her around a couple of times and then that was it. No wonder you two always needed me. It looks like I was the only strong one in the group." Tai said as he stopped laughing, but still had a slight smile on his face from seeing Ace so shaken up.

As Ace heard Tai's words, he turned around and glared at Tai, all the emotion in his voice and eyes turning into pure hate as he spoke. "Tai...I'm going to kill you. You killed Sarah. I thought that both she and I meant more to you than we could ever know. I guess that I was wrong. After everything that we went through, you threw it all away and even killed her...I can't forgive you." Ace said as he got up from the sand and glared at Tai again, the tears on his face illuminating like crystals from the light of the full moon that was watching over the two friends turned enemies. The keyblade then appeared in Ace's hand as he gripped it with both hands and began his charge, his emotions clouding his judgment.

Tai's smile changed back to his normal arrogant smirk as he summoned Oblivion's Wrath to his hand and parried Ace's charge with a simple flick of the wrist.

"A keyblade?" Ace asked as he used the momentum to jump a few feet back and away from Tai's keyblade.

"Did you think that you were the only one with a keyblade? Wrong." Tai said as he held out his other hand towards Ace and several orbs of darkness appeared in his hand that suddenly began to fly through the air towards Ace.

Ace tried to evade the attack, but got hit by several of the orbs and was slammed into the ground while his keyblade was flung into the air from the impacts and landed several feet away from him. Ace tried to get up and fell to his knees for a second from the pain. _'How did Tai get so powerful? Could the darkness truly be this powerful?' _Ace wondered to himself as he tried to get up again, and was able to get to his feet for a second, but he was breathing hard and grimacing from the pain.

"Don't even try to get up Ace, unless you're prepared to die this time." Tai said as he turned around and disappeared into another dark portal.

"Tai, I'm not fini—" Ace began as he fell to the ground and fainted, oblivious to the two people whom had just arrived at the scene of the battle.


	5. Sub Chapter 3 Tai's Confrontation

**Sub-Chapter 3**

**Tai's Confrontation in the Darkness:**

Tai walked out of the portal and noticed that he was surrounded by pure, uncontrollable darkness all around him. He began to wonder why he hadn't appeared in Radiant Garden like he planned. Suddenly, Tai felt a presence behind him and he turned around to find a person with aquamarine eyes staring at him. Tai noticed that the person had silver hair that went past his shoulders, and seemed to hold the presence of a person who had seen the horrors of the night and lived to see the light of day.

"I see that Maleficent is still up to her old tricks. I thought that we had seen the last of that witch back at the World That Never Was." The mysterious figure said as a keyblade that had a small wing on the end of it, appeared in the person's hand.

"What do you mean by that?" Tai asked. "She gave me the power that I needed. She didn't manipulate me or anything." Tai said as he summoned Oblivion's Wrath to his hand.

"She is manipulating you. You're just being used as a puppet by her. That power that she gave you, it's like a curse." The figure said as he began to get into his personal attack stance.

"This power is not a curse. I was blinded by the light and I could only see my 'friends' from one point of view. Now, with the darkness, I can see everybody's true self and their intentions. And as for you, the darkness is showing me that I need to destroy you." Tai said as he got into his attack stance and fluttered his wings a little before he charged at the person with his keyblade held high.

The figure stood his ground as he easily parried Tai's charge and struck back with a blow that knocked Tai back several steps.

Tai got back up and grimaced a little as he spread his wings out to their full span. A small smirk began to cross Tai's face as he took to the air and floated up above the figure. "Try and attack me now." Tai said as several orbs of darkness appeared in his hand and he shot all of them down at the figure.

"I hope that you can back that up." The figure said as he summoned several orbs as well and caused both attacks to negate each other. While Tai was shocked at the fact that this figure could use the same attacks as he could, the figure suddenly disappeared from the ground.

"What the—" Tai began, but stopped as soon as he realized that the guy would probably appear behind him. "Got you." Tai said as he turned around in mid air with his wings and swung his keyblade behind him, but the man wasn't there.

"You're too gullible. Never assume what somebody is going to do." The figure said as he appeared in front of Tai and stabbed him multiple times in mid air. Suddenly the figure did one last slash that hit Tai so hard that it sent him falling down into the ground.

Tai hit the ground hard and coughed up blood as he stumbled back to his feet. "But how? Why can't I win? There's no way that the darkness could fail me." Tai said as he continued to stumble around until he was able to concentrate. He summoned a little bit of the darkness and used it to heal his wounds even though he still felt severely weak.

"It's simple. I told you that it was a curse. Darkness may win at first, but in the end, it always loses." The figure said as he summoned a dark portal and walked through it.

"Hey, get back here." Tai muttered, but he knew that it would take a little longer for his injuries to fully heal. "I'd better head back to Radiant Garden. I've got a feeling that Maleficent is waiting for me and I need to rest for a little to try to finish healing these injuries." Tai said as he summoned a dark portal himself and walked through it.


	6. Chapter 4 Bonds of the Heart

**Chapter 4**

**Bonds of the Heart:**

Ace woke up in an unfamiliar bed and looked over to see the sunlight as it streamed in through the window. "Where am I?" Ace asked under his breath as he tried to wake up enough to concentrate, but then the memories of the night before began to appear in his mind. "Sarah, she's dead...and Tai's still out there somewhere, waiting for me probably." Ace said to himself as he looked around the room as he strugged to sit up somewhat. After a few moments, he heard somebody come in the room and looked over towards the door to find a girl with crimson red hair standing there, looking at him. "Hey, where am I?" Ace asked the girl as he knew for a fact after looking around the room, that he wasn't back on his island, but still on Destiny Islands.

"You're in Sora's house." The girl said with a comforting smile as she took a few steps towards the bed where Ace laid.

"Who are you? Are you a friend of Sora's?" Ace asked, even though he already had a feeling that this girl might have been that someone that Sora had to leave to meet last night.

"Oh, sorry about forgetting to introduce myself. I'm Kairi and yeah, I'm a friend of Sora's." The girl, Kairi, said in a cheerful tone. After a few moments, she turned around and yelled out the door, "Hey Sora, Ace is finally awake."

"Hey, um Kairi, how did I get here?" Ace asked as he saw Sora walk through the door right after he asked.

"We arrived at the beach about the same time that we saw you faint and saw somebody leaving in a dark portal." Sora said. "Oh and Ace would you mind explaining to us about exactly what in the heck happened?" Sora asked.

"Hey Sora." Ace said as he saw Sora come in. "Fine, I'll tell you what happened..." Ace said, sighing a little, as he explained about Tai and Sarah, and about everything that had happened the night before.

"I'm sorry about Sarah." Kairi said.

"I tried to warn you, so you wouldn't have to go through what I did, but I didn't expect you to do any different than I did." Sora said.

"I know. I was just so shocked that he could do something like that." Ace said as he clenched his fists hard and a few tears leaked out of his eyes. "I really didn't think that he would go as far as...killing Sarah." Ace said as tears continued to flow from his eyes.

Sora saw Ace clench his fists and walked over to him and placed his hand on Ace's shoulder. "Come on Ace, cheer up some." Sora said, putting on a smile as he thought about something.

"I'll try to. But Sora do you think that I can somehow get Sarah back?" Ace asked as he wiped his tears away.

"Yeah, so don't worry Ace, you'll find her and get her back. Just remember, Sarah is closer than you think she is." Sora said as he pointed to Ace's heart.

"I don't understand Sora." Ace said as he saw Sora pointing at his heart.

"Whenever you meet someone, your heart becomes connected to them by invisible chains. The bond that forms as a result of that meeting will help keep the ones you meet together and will help you find Sarah." Sora said as he tried his best to explain considering that he had never been the kind of person who was good at explaining things.

"Yeah, if it hadn't been for the bond between myself and Sora then he would never have been able to find and rescue me." Kairi said, smiling a little.

"That's for sure." Sora agreed as a grin spread across his face.

"Thanks you two." Ace said as he started to smile a little as well. Ace then started to get out of the bed and grimaced a little at the pain from his previous injuries.

"Ace, you might want to take it easy until your injuries heal." Sora said as he tried to stop Ace at first but then just gave up and started helping him to get his balance back.

"I'll be okay and I'll see you guys later. I need to get Sarah back now. I can't waste anymore time than I have to right now." Ace said as he stood completely up and got his balance back right.

"Okay Ace you can save Sarah, but go on outside first and then I'll be out in a second." Sora said as he saw Kairi motion that she needed to tell him something.

"Sure Sora." Ace said as he walked outside to wait for Sora.

As soon as Ace was gone, Sora turned back to Kairi.

"Sora, give this to Ace. I believe that it might come in handy for him." Kairi said as she handed Sora her lucky charm which turned into the Oathkeeper keyblade for a second before it transformed back into the lucky charm.

"Wait a second, this is your lucky charm...Okay I think that I understand." Sora said.

"I'll see you after you give it to Ace." Kairi said as she saw Sora walk outside.

Ace turned around and saw Sora coming out of the house. "I'll see you later, Sora. I really need to go now." Ace said as he turned back around and began to walk off, determined to somehow get Sarah back.

"Hey wait up for a second, Ace!" Sora yelled as he threw something towards Ace.

"What's this?" Ace asked as he caught the object and recognized it as some kind of charm.

"It's a keychain for a keyblade, known as the Oathkeeper. Like its name says, it's a keyblade that symbolizes the bond between hearts that I mentioned earlier." Sora said.

"Thanks Sora, I'll give it back to you as soon as I rescue Sarah and that's a promise." Ace said, waving his hand back at Sora as he walked off.


	7. Sub Chapter 4 Tai's Return

**Sub-Chapter 4**

**Tai's Return to Radiant Garden:**

A dark portal opened up near the conference table in the dark room and Tai walked through it, his body still aching from the earlier battle and several gashes were visible from where the attacks had slashed through his clothes and into his skin.

"I see that you decided not to kill your friend yet." Maleficent said as she got up from her seat at the conference table. She noticed the injuries on Tai's body and wondered who had caused them for a moment. She knew that it hadn't been Ace because she had watched Tai's battle against him. Suddenly she began to smell a familiar scent of darkness in the air around Tai. Maleficent smiled a little as she recognized the scent of her old child, the one who had betrayed her after all she had done for him.

"I decided to let him live, not only to feel guilt over Sarah, but also to make him stronger so that I could have a true match with him before my keyblade pierces his heart." Tai said as he walked over to somebody unconscious on the floor. Tai looked down at the person and realized that it was Sarah. He turned to face Maleficent. "Maleficent, how can Sarah be here? I killed her myself. I saw her fade away in Ace's arms." Tai asked, wondering how the heck her body was physically there in front of him.

"Tai my child, when you got rid of Sarah, her heart combined with Ace's and her body was sent here to us. What you saw disappear was the appearance that her heart gave off before it combined with Ace's heart." Maleficent said.

"I believe that I understand but does Ace know that Sarah's heart is inside of him?" Tai asked.

"No, he does not know yet." Maleficent said.

Maleficent opened a dark portal near her. "Tai, I will be back soon with Ace so be prepared to fight or do whatever you may choose to do." Maleficent said as she stepped into the dark portal and disappeared.

'_Ace, I hope that you are ready and don't feel guilty about killing me because I won't hold back against you this time. I held back last time because of our bond after being friends and rivals for almost all of our lives, and I decided to spare your life one time because of that.'_ Tai thought to himself as he began to wonder if he really wanted to kill his friend, but he pushed the thought away.


	8. Chapter 5 Flashbacks

**Chapter 5**

**Flashbacks:**

_A much younger Ace, probably about five or six, had just arrived at the beach and was looking out at the waves. "I wish that I had somebody to be friends with. It seems like everybody else does." Ace said under his breath and sighed a little. He sat down on the sand and hugged his legs as he put his head down and silently cried a little._

"_Wow, what's wrong with you?" A voice asked from somewhere in front of Ace._

_Ace stopped his crying and looked up from where he was to see a young boy about his age looking down at him, with a calm and cool look on his face and dark blond hair that seemed to be soaking wet. "It's...it's nothing." Ace said as he wiped away the tears. "Who are you?" Ace asked after a moment._

_The boy seemed to smirk a little, almost as if he knew that Ace was trying to hide what was wrong. "My name's Tai." Said Tai as he walked around to Ace's side and sat down next to him. "So, are you going to tell me what's wrong or not? I know that something's wrong, I can see it in your eyes." Tai asked Ace as he looked over at him and waited to find out what was wrong._

"_It's nice to meet you Tai. My name, um, it's Ace." Ace said as he looked down at the ground a little after he heard what Tai asked him. "Well, uh...It seems like everybody else has friends that are there for them except for me. I haven't met anybody yet who wants to be my friend." Ace said as his grip around his legs became a little tighter._

_Tai sighed a little at what Ace was telling him. "So, that's why you're out here by yourself on such a sunny day?" Tai asked, still with a collected look on his face. Tai then put his hand on Ace's shoulder and saw him let go of his knees and look at him. "Here's what I'll do. I'll be your friend since you don't have any. We'll help each other with any problems that the other has." Tai said._

_Ace looked a little shocked for a moment. "You'll actually be my friend?" Ace asked, hoping that Tai wasn't just messing around with him._

"_Yeah, I will." Tai said as the look on his face proved that he wasn't kidding._

_Ace smiled a little, glad that he finally had a friend. "Promise?" Ace asked as he held his hand up, with his pinky extended._

"_Promise." Tai said with a grin as he brought his hand up as well and they made a pinky promise to each other to always be friends._

* * *

_An older Ace and Tai were fighting on the beach as waves crashed against the sand and the sky behind them was the lightest shade of blue with no clouds in sight. It was the perfect setting for their sparring match. Even though Tai almost always won, there were times when Ace would pull through at the last moment and win the match._

_As another wave crashed against the beach and sent sheets of water pouring down on the two best friends, they both struck each other's wooden swords and smirked at each other._

"_I'm going to win this time, Tai." An eleven-year old Ace said as he pushed harder with his wooden sword._

"_No chance, I'm going to win." A twelve-year old Tai said back as his smirk began to turn into a grin. He was thinking about how much Ace had actually changed since he first met a few years ago on this very beach. He let Ace push his sword back a little, but then he suddenly put a lot of strength into it and slammed his sword against Ace's._

"_No, you're not. You win almost every time. This is my time to win." Ace said as he felt the sudden power behind Tai's push and he lost his footing and fell back a few feet into the sand._

_Tai stood there still smirking, as he saw Ace fall back a few feet into the sand. "You finished yet? I thought that you said that you were going to win this time?" Tai asked with smug look on his face, but he knew that deep down Ace wasn't finished quite yet._

_Ace got up from the sand and spit out some sand that had gotten in his mouth when he fell and smirked back at Tai. "You know that I'm not finished yet." Ace said as he charged at Tai and their swords connected with each other's shoulder and they were both sent stumbling back a few steps._

_As they both regained their composure and got back into their attack stances, a good sized wave suddenly hit the edge of the beach and they were knocked off of their feet and into the sand._

"_Ouch." Tai muttered a little as he felt the prickly sand under him as he lay in the sand. He thought he heard something muffled to his left and looked over to see Ace's legs sticking up in the air, with the rest of him buried under the sand. Tai started laughing a little as he got up and walked over to Ace. "Wow Ace, you're definitely a sight to see." Tai said still laughing as he bent down and began to shove the sand away with his hands until he was able to finally drag Ace out of it._

"_Th...Thanks." Ace tried his best to say as he started spitting out sand. Ace finally spit out the last of the sand in his mouth and looked down to see his clothes completely soaked with water and covered in sand._

_Tai sat down next to Ace and noticed him looking at his messed up clothes. Tai then noticed that his clothes were in no better shape than Ace's. "It looks like both of our mothers are going to kill us, especially considering that these were our good clothes." Tai said as Ace and him looked at each other and began laughing that carefree laugh that only innocent kids can._

* * *

_A thirteen-year old Ace was sleeping in his room even though it was already about noon. His parents had decided to let him sleep in and they had already left to go to their jobs earlier that morning. Suddenly Ace's door opened and somebody began to shake him awake. Ace groaned a little in his sleep and after a few moments, slowly opened his eyes to see Tai trying to wake him up. "What is it Tai? I'm still tired from that late night sparring with you last night." Ace said as he tried to focus on why Tai was there and try to get woken up._

"_Yeah, it's kind of obvious that you're still tired. Well anyway, I came by to see if you had heard about the new girl that moved here." Tai said as he sat down on the edge of the bed._

"_A new girl? No, I haven't heard about it. Who is she?" Ace asked as he rubbed his eyes some and sat up on the bed._

"_All of the adults seemed to know so I thought that your parents might have told you. Well, she and her family moved here last night from those islands near us, the ones called Destiny Islands. I think that her name's Sarah or something and I heard that she's around your age, Ace." Tai said._

"_Tai, let me get dressed and we'll go and meet her." Ace said as he got off the bed and began to grab his normal outfit._

"_Sure, I'll wait outside for you." Tai said as he left the room and closed the door behind him, as Ace began to get dressed._

_After a few minutes, Ace finished getting dressed and met Tai outside the house. "Hey Tai, do you happen to know where she lives?" Ace asked, hoping that Tai knew where the girl and her family were staying._

"_Yeah, I found out from my dad this morning. He said that he talked to her family last night and helped them get settled into their new home." Tai said as he and Ace began to head towards where the girl lived._

_After a short while, the two of them arrived in front of a modest two story house similar to Ace's house. "Is this where she lives now?" Ace asked as he and Tai walked up to the door._

"_Yeah." Tai said as he knocked on the door and a young woman with dark blue hair down to her shoulders and green eyes appeared at the door._

"_Is there anything I can do for you two kids?" The woman, who couldn't be any older than her early thirties, asked._

"_Is your daughter, Sarah, here? My friend and I kind of wanted to introduce ourselves to her and welcome her to the islands." Tai asked._

"_No, she left earlier. She said something about going down to the beach for a little while to relax." The woman said._

"_Thank you." Tai said as the woman smiled a little and closed the door._

"_So she's at the beach. Hey Tai, let's head to the beach and see if she's there." Ace said._

"_Fine, but the next person that we meet, you do the talking. I've already had to chat with the girl's mother, so you handle the next person." Tai said as they both headed towards the beach._

_A short while later, the two of them stopped at the beach and began to look around for the girl._

"_Any clue where she might be, Tai?" Ace asked as he continued walking and looking._

"_If I had any clue where she might be, then we would have already found her." Tai said as he told Ace that maybe they should split up and look._

_Ace agreed with Tai's idea and they parted in separate directions. After a few minutes of searching, Ace noticed a girl sitting down at the edge of the beach with the water lapping against her feet. He noticed that she had long dark blue hair down to her waist. Ace reasoned that she was probably Sarah. He walked down to the beach and sat down next to the girl. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be Sarah, would you?" Ace asked._

"_Uh yeah, that's my name. How did you know?" Sarah asked as she turned towards him and Ace was almost memorized by her fiery red eyes._

"_Well, uh, my friend told me earlier because his dad helped get you and your family settled in last night." Ace asked, stumbling for words for a second._

"_Oh okay. So, what's your name?" Sarah asked, laughing a little bit at Ace.._

"_Uh, my name's Ace. My friend's name is Tai." Ace said, finally trying to get his voice back under control._

"_Ace and Tai..." Sarah said as she said both names over again. "So where is your friend?" Sarah asked._

"_Well, we both decided to split up and try to look for you." Ace said, finally getting his voice completely under his control._

_Sarah looked confused for a second. "Looking for me? Why?" Sarah asked._

"_We just wanted to meet you. It's not exactly everyday that anybody new moves to this place." Ace said. "That reminds me, why did you choose to come out here to the beach?" Ace asked._

"_Growing up on Destiny Islands I always used to play at the ocean, even though I think that's kind of obvious. And well, that's why I came out here. It's just like the beach over at Destiny Islands and I just wanted to feel the cool, refreshing waters again." Sarah said, smiling a little as she felt the cool water splashing against her legs._

"_Yeah, even though I've lived here all my life, I always loved coming down here for everything from swimming to sparring with Tai to just plain old thinking." Ace said as he smiled a little as well._

"_Hey Ace, do you mind telling me about you and your friend?" Sarah asked._

"_I don't mind." Ace said as he told Sarah almost everything about himself and Tai._

"_He sounds like a great friend. I don't think that anybody could wish for a better friend." Sarah said._

_Ace nodded a little. "I know, he's almost like an older brother to me. From the day that we met, we promised that we would always be there for each other." Ace said._

_For the next few minutes, they just sat in silence and listened to the sounds of the ocean. After a few minutes, Ace looked back over his shoulder and noticed Tai walking towards them. Ace waved at him and noticed Tai wave back as he continued walking towards them._

_Sarah noticed Tai in the distance. "Ace, is that your friend Tai?" Sarah asked._

"_Yeah and I know that he'll be happy to meet you too." Ace said._


	9. Chapter 6 Battle Between Friends

**Chapter 6**

**Battle between Friends:**

Ace arrived at the beach soon after leaving Sora's home a short while earlier. He sat down on the sand and stared at the waves as a solitary tear fell down his face and onto the back of his gloved hand. _'Tai, I swear that I won't lose to you this time. I just can't, I will take you down to avenge Sarah...And once I'm finished with you, I'm going to do everything in my power to find Sarah and bring her back.'_ Ace thought to himself as he continued to stare at the waves.

'_Ace, please don't be so rash and get yourself hurt...Please don't try to avenge me if it will get you hurt. You don't have to do this for my sake.'_ A voice said as Ace felt somebody's arms wrap around him from behind, almost as it trying to comfort him.

Ace turned around as quickly as he could, but he didn't see anybody anywhere around him. "That sounded and even felt like Sarah but how? She's dead...but I can still feel her presence here with me...Sarah, I'm sorry but I can't back down from this now. I hope that you understand." Ace said to himself. He then saw somebody appearing from a dark portal like Tai did. He jumped back a little and summoned his keyblade. "Who are you?" Ace asked as he saw somebody dressed like a witch walk out.

"You don't have to worry about my name. I'm just here to bring you to Tai." Maleficent said.

"Why would you do that for me?" Ace asked, not trusting this witch at all.

"I'm doing it for my own reasons. Don't worry, I nor anybody else will interfere with yours and Tai's fight once I bring you there." Maleficent said, her mouth forming into a twisted smile.

"Fine." Ace said, barely above a whisper. He really didn't trust this person at all, but he didn't really have any other choices. This person might be his only chance of finding and fighting Tai again.

"Follow me then." Maleficent said as she opened another Dark Corridor. She walked through and waited until Ace began to walk towards it.

'_This is it. Tai, I am coming to take you down this time. I can't let you live after what you did.'_ Ace thought to himself as he walked inside the portal and felt it close behind him.

Ace walked out of the portal a few seconds later to see a dark room with a conference table in the middle. "Where am I?" Ace asked as he looked at Maleficent.

"I brought you to my castle here in Radiant Garden of course. Now, like I promised, I'm going to leave you two alone to fight to the death." Maleficent said as she disappeared into a dark portal, knowing what would happen soon.

"Hey Ace, I see that you finally arrived. So, are you ready to finish this?" A voice asked from behind Ace.

Ace slowly turned around and saw Tai walk out from the shadows. He noticed that Tai had several tears in his clothing, as well as gashes in his skin under the tears and that he still had those demonic wings. "I am and this time I won't lose. I won't let this battle be over until this keyblade of mine pierces your heart for killing Sarah." Ace said as he held his hand out and summoned Blazing Angel in a flash of light.

"Well Ace, I won't lose either." Tai said as he held his hand out as well and summoned Oblivion's Wrath to it in a similar flash of light. A second later, Ace and Tai charged at each other without another moment's hesitation.

Ace and Tai locked their keyblades together and faced each other down. "You know that I won't hold anything back this time. It'll be just like our old sparring matches. We'll keep going at each other with everything we have, but this time we won't just stop at the point when we get worn out...we'll keep on fighting until one of our keyblades pierces the other's heart." Tai said with a slight smirk.

"Just what I was thinking, but I won't be the one lying dead on the floor." Ace said, smirking as well as he forced his keyblade against Tai's a little harder, but then suddenly used the push to flip himself away from Tai.

Tai then began his next charge at Ace, while Ace was still in the air and slashed at him multiple times in mid air, but Ace blocked each one with a sense of focus and determination that Tai had never before seen in him.

Ace then attacked back with his own slashes, which got deflected as well.

As soon as he blocked the last of Ace's slashes, Tai jumped back a few steps and then took to the air with his wings. He then looked down at Ace and smirked again because of the fact that he know had the high ground and height advantage over Ace.

Ace shook his head at Tai's arrogance as an idea appeared in his mind. He slowly pulled back his arm and threw the keyblade into the air like a spear towards Tai's right wing.

As the keyblade sailed through the air Tai realized what Ace's plan was, but he didn't realize how fast the keyblade was going. The keyblade pierced through his right wing, severing part of it and caused him to plummet back towards the ground as the keyblade embedded itself in the stone wall. Right when he was about to hit the floor at such a fast speed as he was currently going, he jabbed his keyblade into the wall and was able to slow down his descent enough to not hit the ground too hard. After a few seconds, Tai touched the ground, feet first and pulled his keyblade out of the wall, but not before grimacing at the pain coming from his severely damaged wing.

As soon as Ace saw Tai land, he held his hand back out once again and the keyblade suddenly disappeared from its location in the wall and reappeared in Ace's hand. Ace then charged Tai again, but Tai raised his keyblade at the last moment and barely avoided a possibly fatal hit.

Their keyblades locked together once again and they stared at each other for few seconds in total silence. "Tai, we've always pushed each other our entire lives, making the other stronger but today, we end it once and for all. I'm going to push you so far that you fall off the edge of life and into the abyss of death." Ace said as he pushed harder, but Tai suddenly punched Ace in the face with his left fist as he pulled his keyblade away with his right hand.

Ace jumped back a few steps after he recovered from the punch and could feel a ton of blood dripping from his nose from where Tai had busted it with that single punch. Ace felt his nose where it was busted and looked at how blood soaked his hand was when he moved his hand away. He gripped his keyblade again and jumped towards Tai again to continue the battle.

Ace and Tai continued fighting for several more minutes, their attacks becoming quicker and more ferocious with each and every strike until Ace caught a glance at somebody beside a wall who was unconscious.

"Sarah?" Ace asked out loud as he suddenly felt pain explode in his left arm and saw a deep bloody gash in his left shoulder and noticed that Tai's keyblade was stuck in it. A second later, Ace held back a scream as he felt Tai wrench the keyblade out of his arm, tearing the skin even more.

Tai heard Ace and stopped attacking once he wrenched his keyblade out of Ace's arm. "Yeah, that's Sarah's body." Tai said as he pulled his keyblade back for another slash and then suddenly slashed forward, slicing clean into Ace's right leg before wrenching the keyblade out again.

"But how..." Ace began as he saw Tai pull his keyblade back for another slash. Ace let out a scream this time as he felt the keyblade slice clean into his right leg, causing Ace to fall. Right as he was falling, Ace barely caught himself and landed on his left knee even though he nearly dropped Blazing Angel in the process.

Tai saw his chance and readied himself to swing his keyblade one more time to finish this battle once and for all.

Ace grimaced at the huge amount of pain still rushing through his left arm and now his right leg as he saw Tai swing the keyblade towards him, ready to pierce his heart. Ace didn't feel as if he could even move let alone try to block the attack with the pain clouding his mind and his eyes beginning to become foggy. _'Sarah, I'm so sorry...I just can't go on anymore. This pain...I don't know how I'm still even holding my keyblade now.'_ Ace thought, slowly closing his eyes as he prepared to die and meet Sarah in the next life.

'_Ace, I knew it. You always start whining when you get hurt. Come on Ace, you're not out of this yet. I believe in you too much for you to lose now.'_ Sarah's voice said in Ace's mind as Ace felt her there with him, felt her arms on his shaking arms helping to keep them steady, and her inner fire rekindling his defeated spirit.

A small smile began to form on Ace's lips as he felt Sarah there with him. He couldn't die quite yet. If he did, he wouldn't be able to save Sarah, he had just now finally figured out what he had to do. Ace quickly held out his left hand, painfully, in front of Tai's keyblade and reached out with his heart once again. Suddenly the Oathkeeper keyblade materialized in Ace's left hand and helped to deflect the slash.

"What the...How did you get a second keyblade? Also, how can you even fight back now with those injuries?" Tai asked, surprised.

"I got it from a new friend, Sora, and as for how I'm fighting back, you can ask Sarah when I bring her back." Ace said, smirking. He then reversed Blazing Angel in his right hand and used it to power slash Tai's right arm hard.

Tai fell to his knees as the pain started to spread through his arm and dropped his keyblade to the ground.

Ace stood over Tai, with Oathkeeper in his left hand and Blazing Angel in his right.

Tai started gasping for breath as he looked up at Ace, waiting for him to finish it.

"Tai, I won't kill you. I now understand what Sora said and why I could hear Sarah's voice and could feel her presence." Ace said as both Oathkeeper and Blazing Angel disappeared, but the Oathkeeper keychain remained in Ace's hand. He placed the keychain in his pocket and reached down to pick up Oblivion's Wrath. "Tai, I won't try to change your mind about how you believe that Sarah and I didn't even worry about you, but please take care of Sarah for me anyway. That is the only thing that I ask of you." Ace said as he pointed Oblivion's Wrath at his own heart and smiled a little at the thought that Sarah would finally be back. He knew that he would disappear into the darkness, but that was a small price to pay to see Sarah back for just a few seconds. He blinked a little and felt the blood from his nose seeping into his shirt and the deep bloody gashes in his arm and leg still bleeding. He smiled again knowing that the pain would disappear as soon as he finished what he knew he had to do.


	10. Chapter 7 Power of the Keyblade

**Chapter 7**

**Power of the Keyblade:**

Ace plunged the keyblade into his chest and began to fall forward as a single heart left his body and floated over to Sarah's body. As soon as Ace saw the heart fade into Sarah's body, he smiled a little as he finally fell face down on the floor as Oblivion's Wrath disappeared in a cloud of darkness.

Sarah began to wake up and saw Ace face down on the floor. "Ace? Ace!" Sarah yelled as she ran over to Ace and picked him up enough so that his upper body was cradled in her arms. "Come on Ace, please be okay. You can't die on me, not like this. Please, oh god, please be okay." Sarah pleaded and hoped as she held Ace's dying body.

"Sarah, I'm glad that I was able to meet you." Ace said as his body began to feel lighter and began to fade away.

Sarah started sobbing and crying as she heard Ace tell her that he was glad that he was able to meet her.

Ace slowly turned to Tai. "Tai, please do as I asked and take care of Sarah for me." Ace said.

"Don't worry Ace; I'll take care of her. That's a promise." Tai said with a few tears in his eyes as he finally realized that what that mysterious man said was true. Darkness really was a curse. He had now just lost one friend because of it and he had another one who would probably hate for the rest of his life for what he had done.

Ace saw the tears in Tai's eyes and realized that whatever had happened to Tai, he was his normal self again now. He struggled a little to turn back to Sarah as he heard her crying and felt her tears falling on his face and shirt.

"Sarah, please don't cry." Ace said, his voice already starting to become lighter and cracking a little as he brushed his hand against the side of her face in an attempt to get rid of the tears and hopefully calm her down some.

"Ace, please don't leave me. Not now, not after everything that's happened. You can't...you just...you just can't leave like this after all that's happened...I know that you're stronger than this..." Sarah said as she tried to stop crying but she continued to beg him to stay.

"I'm sorry, but I'll always be with you. Whenever you want to see me, just close your eyes and imagine me. I promise that I'll be there then." Ace said as he pointed at her heart and looked into her fiery red eyes as tears continued to flow from them. "Sarah, I should have told you this when we first met each other on our island right there on the beach...I...I lo...love...you..." Ace said as a few tears slide out of his foggy eyes as he finally faded away and his heart floated into the sky until it disappeared.

"Ace!" Sarah yelled as her tears began to stain the cold stone floor. "Ace, I love you too. Why didn't I ever say it before it was too late?" Sarah muttered to herself as she continued crying and collapsed to the ground, partially from weariness but mostly because of the loss of the one who she would never see again in this life.

Tai saw Ace finally fade away. "Ace, I'm sorry about this. It was my fault. If I hadn't been tricked by Maleficent then this would have never happened." Tai muttered to himself as he saw Maleficent reappear near him. "You! You're the one who forced me to do something that I can never take back." Tai said as he held his hand out, but nothing happened. After a second he realized that he didn't have a keyblade anymore, his had disappeared before Ace faded away.

"I didn't force you to do anything that you didn't already want to. I gave you what you wanted and you did all that with the power that I gave you because deep down in your heart, that was what you wanted all along." Maleficent said as she smiled a little as a darkish aura appeared around Tai. "But, that doesn't mean that I can't take it back now that you've decided to betray me." Maleficent said as the aura disappeared and Tai was left gasping for breath back in his normal clothes with the wings now gone as well as his control over the darkness.

Tai continued to gasp for breath as he realized that he was powerless to do anything now, but he decided not to let that stop him. "I don't care if you take it back. You can have it, it's just a curse anyway." Tai said, repeating what that silver-haired man had said, as he did his best to continue standing after everything that had happened.

"It may be a curse to you but to those like myself who have controlled darkness for years, it is a gift." Maleficent said as she had an idea. "Would you like a demonstration of what darkness can truly do, since you never used it to its full power?" She asked, as an aura of darkness began to appear around her hand. A second later, she flicked her hand a little and the darkness shot like a bullet from her hand towards Sarah's still weeping self.

As the darkness hit Sarah's still crying body on the floor, she suddenly screamed as the darkness began to cover her. It was almost as if the darkness was burning her or something. She began writhing in agony as the darkness continued to cover her in itself.

Tai saw the demonstration and saw the pain that Sarah was going through. He suddenly glared at Maleficent with hate in his eyes. He had to stop her from hurting Sarah. He promised Ace that he would keep her safe. "Stop it!" Tai yelled as he charged Maleficent with his right hand curled into a fist to strike with. Right before the punch connected, Tai froze in place and noticed tendrils of darkness holding his legs in place. He glared at Maleficent one last time as he felt the tendrils pick him up into the air and throw him towards the wall. He hit the stone wall hard enough to dislodge some of the heavy stones and fell to the floor battered and hurt from the powerful throw. He tried to get up but he realized that he couldn't move at all.

A second later, multiple orbs of darkness appeared and struck Maleficent all over her entire body. The force of the attack sent her flying across the room and knocked her out.

Tai looked up from his place on the floor as he saw the attack and looked over to see who had caused it. As soon as he saw the silver hair and aquamarine eyes, he knew who it was. "What is he doing here? Wait, could he actually be trying to save us?" Tai muttered under his breath as he continued to try to get up. He began to get up slowly and had to grit his teeth against the pain the whole time, but he was able to slowly get to at least his knees. Tai then looked over at Sarah and noticed that the darkness was fading away from around her and noticed that her pain seemed to be lessening. He then noticed the man walk over to him and look down at him.

"I saw everything that happened. At least you aren't blinded by the darkness anymore." The man said as he continued to look down at Tai. "Come on, we've got to get both of you out of here before Maleficent wakes up. You stay here and I'll grab the girl." The man said as he ran over to Sarah and picked her up carefully in his arms as he ran back over to where Tai was. The man then opened a dark portal and told Tai to go into it.

Tai understood that whoever this man was, he truly was trying to help them. He nodded his head a little and limped the best he could until he was inside the portal.

As soon as the man saw Tai walk inside the portal, he looked back at Maleficent's unconscious form and wondered for a second why she just would not give up. Suddenly he shook his head a little to clear the thought away. He had to get both of these two away from Maleficent. He felt Sarah move a little in his arms, but then he felt her stop moving and heard her breathing normal. He realized that she had fallen asleep. He shifted his hold on her a little and then began to walk through the dark portal as well.

A short while later on Destiny Islands, a dark portal opened near Sora's home and Tai walked out of first, followed by the man carrying Sarah.

The man walked up to the door and banged on it a few times with his foot. "Hey Sora, you in there?" The man asked as he saw the door open and saw Sora at the door. "Took you long enough. I just got back from Maleficent's old castle." The man said.

"Riku...Ok, come on in." Sora said as the man, Riku, carried Sarah in. "What happened?" Sora asked Riku even though he just continued past him.

As soon as Riku walked past Sora, Tai walked inside as well and noticed Sora close the door behind him. Tai walked into the room and noticed a girl with crimson hair sitting on the couch and talking to the man, Riku, who was still holding Sarah in his arms.

Riku talked to Kairi for a few moments before he turned around and faced Sora. "I'm going to carry her to the spare bedroom and lay her down for a while. Tai can explain about everything that happened." Riku said as he walked up the stairs and went to lay Sarah down in the spare bedroom.

"Tai. You're the one that Ace was talking about that betrayed him, aren't you?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, I was. I was weak and I let Maleficent exploit that." Tai said as he told Sora and Kairi everything that had happened.

After a few minutes Tai finished the story and by that time, Riku had already come back down from tending to Sarah.

"So Ace is really gone." Sora said under his breath as he sat down on the couch where Kairi was.

Tai nodded sadly. "Yeah, it was entirely my fault. I wish that we could get him back." Tai said as he sat down in a nearby chair and a few tears fell out of his eyes and onto his clenched fists.


	11. Chapter 8 The Light Within the Darkness

**Chapter 8**

**The Light Within the Darkness:**

Ace looked around, but all he could see was darkness everywhere around him. "Where am I?" Ace asked, hearing his voice echo in the darkness. _'Where am I? What am I doing here? Wait, the last thing I remember is telling Sarah that I loved her as I was fading away...Is this what death is like?' _Ace wondered to himself as he began to wander through the endless darkness. He continued wandering through the darkness, slowly slipping farther and farther into the darkness that surrounded him as he continued to search for anything besides the darkness around him. "Sarah?" Ace asked as he began to see a light in front of him and began to walk towards it.

A Shadow Heartless appeared from the shadows in Sora's house while everybody was giving a moment of silence to Ace's short-lived life. The Heartless looked around with its yellow eyes for a moment, taking in the furniture and Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Tai in the room as it saw everybody raise their heads and stare at it.

Everybody saw the Heartless appear and stopped their moment of silence. "It's not attacking yet, why?" Tai asked as he saw everybody else just watching it as well, not prepared to do anything.

At that moment, Sarah began to come down the stairs and stopped as she saw the creature and how everybody was watching it. She felt some kind of connection to the Heartless, but she didn't have a clue how or why. She then remembered what Ace had told her if she ever wanted to see him. She closed her eyes and tried to visualize him in her mind. She then began to feel his calming presence, the same kind of presence as that of the oceans that surrounded the islands. Suddenly she saw the Heartless for what it really was and she began to smile as she opened her eyes. "It's Ace! He's back!" Sarah yelled happily as she ran over to the Heartless and hugged it in her arms. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Ace could be seen hugging Sarah back. They pulled apart as the light started to fade away. "Ace...You're really here. You're really back." Sarah said, crying tears of joy now as she hugged Ace again just to make sure that he really was there and wasn't some kind of illusion.

"Yeah Sarah, I'm back and this time I'm not going to leave you again." Ace said, smiling down at her as he felt her hug him again.

Sora looked over at Kairi and Riku and motioned for both of them to come with him outside. Kairi nodded and Riku shrugged as they followed Sora outside.

"So, why did you want us to come out here?" Kairi asked.

"I just thought that it would be a good idea to let the three of them be alone for a little while." Sora said.

"Sora, you really do have good ideas sometime, when you actually stop to think for a minute." Riku said with a slight smirk on his face.

"Yeah I guess--Wait, a sec!" Sora said as he finally realized exactly what Riku meant as Riku started laughing a little and Kairi giggled a little before Sora finally joined in laughing a little as well.

Tai looked over at Sarah and Ace as he saw them hug again. _'I'm glad that those two are finally having some peace after everything I put them through. I just wonder if they can actually forgive me after what I did to both of them and if everything can go back to the way it was before all this happened.' _Tai wondered to himself as he watched Ace and Sarah.

Ace and Sarah pulled apart again and looked into each other's eyes. "Ace, thank you for coming back to me." Sarah said, smiling now that Ace is back and okay.

"Sarah, I'm glad to be back as well and I will be here for you, from now on." Ace said, smiling back at Sarah.

"Thank you." Sarah whispered as she laid her head on Ace's shoulder after they sat down on the couch.

'_Sarah, thank you. If it hadn't been for your light, then I could have never found my way back here to you.' _Ace thought as he laid his head over a little onto Sarah's.

"Hey Ace and Sarah, can you two forgive me for everything that I put you two through?" Tai asked as he prepared to walk away towards the door. He really didn't see any reason why the two of them should forgive him and just thought that he might as well leave before the two of them might tell him that they could never forgive him.

"I forgive you Tai since you did your best to protect me against that witch." Sarah said as she continued to rest her head on Ace's shoulder and also against his head somewhat.

"Yeah Tai, I guess that I have to forgive you as well since you did do like I asked you to and kept Sarah safe." Ace said as he brushed his hand across Sarah's face as she relaxed on his shoulder.

Tai stopped at the door as he heard both of them forgive him. He turned around and looked at both of them. "Thanks you guys." Tai said as he walked over to both of them.

"You don't have to thank us." Ace and Sarah said at the same time as they both looked at each other and laughed.

"You guys won't ever change, will you?" Tai asked, smirking a little and shaking his head at the two of them.

"I guess not." Ace said, grinning as Sarah fell asleep on his shoulder, still smiling.

'_I'm not surprised. Sarah's been through a lot since the Heartless attack. I'm just glad that both of them are safe now and that everything is okay.' _Tai thought to himself as he saw Ace starting to fall asleep as well. _'And that's no surprise either.'_ Tai thought as he saw Ace starting to fall asleep.

Ace fell asleep a few minutes later after listening to Sarah's breathing, a smile the same as Sarah's on his face as well.

Tai looked at the two of them sleeping with a peaceful look on their faces and slowly smiled a little as he saw the smiles on both of their asleep faces.

Sora walked in with Kairi and Riku a few minutes later and saw Ace and Sarah asleep on the couch. "So I'm guessing that everything worked out between the three of you." Sora said as Kairi giggled at the sight of the two sleeping so peacefully on the couch.

"Yeah we were able to work everything out." Tai said.

"I'm glad." Sora said.

"Hey Sora, it's getting late so I'm going to go ahead and head back to my house." Kairi said, running outside as she waved back at Sora.

"Yeah, I'm with Kairi. I'm leaving as well. See you guys in the morning." Riku said as he left as well.

"Okay, I'm going to get some sleep as well and Tai you can stay in the guest bedroom, since it looks like Sarah and Ace are going to sleep in here." Sora said as he headed to his bedroom.

"Thanks Sora." Tai said as he headed to the guest bedroom and went to sleep about the same time that Sora did.


	12. Chapter 9 Connected Hearts

**Chapter 9**

**Connected Hearts:**

Ace and Sarah began to wake up at the same time the next morning and looked at each other on the couch as two yells erupted from the house.

Tai and Sora heard the yells and leaped out of their individual beds and ran into the living room as fast as they could.

"What's going on?" Tai asked as he looked at the two on the couch.

"Yeah, what's the problem?" Sora asked in a sleepy voice.

"Well, uh..." Sarah began, her face red from embarrassment.

"I'll explain. We kind of scared each other bad because we kind of forgot that we fell asleep together here on the couch." Ace said, his face red from embarrassment as well.

"Well, don't yell so loud next time you guys." Tai said with a slight smile on his face.

"I was sleeping well before you guys had to wake me up too..." Sora said as he yawned a few times.

"We'll try to not yell so loud next time." Sarah said, her face still red from embarrassment.

"Yeah, sorry about that." Ace said as he put his hands behind his head and laughed a little.

"I'll see you guys later. I'm heading into town for a little while. After everything that's happened I just feel as if I need a little bit of normalcy to kind of balance it out." Tai said as he left.

"And I need to head over to Kairi's house for a while to talk to her." Sora said as he left as well.

After a few minutes of silence after Tai and Sora left, Sarah finally decided to break the silence. "Sorry about scaring you like that." Sarah said as a little smile appeared on her face as she slowly got up from the couch.

"It's okay and I'm sorry too. Even though you have to admit, thinking about it now, it was kind of funny." Ace said, smiling as well as he got up.

"Now that you say it, yeah it was kind of funny. But also, thanks for comforting me last night until I fell asleep." Sarah said as she laughed a little.

"You don't have to thank me, Sarah. I'm just glad that I could comfort you." Ace said, grinning a little.

"Um, did you really mean it, you know, when you told me that you loved me before you disappeared?" Sarah asked, trying to get all the words to come out right.

"Sarah...Of course I did. I meant every word of it. There's no reason that I would have lied to you about something like that." Ace said as he brushed the side of Sarah's face with his hand to show that he truly meant it.

"I had a feeling that you truly did mean it and I guess that I was right. And even though you probably couldn't hear me...I really did mean it as well when I told you that I loved you too." Sarah said as she closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the soft sensation of Ace's hand brushing across the side of her face before she slowly opened her eyes again.

Ace looked up at Sarah as he heard the words that he had always wanted those lips of hers to say to him. "Sarah...I...I'm glad to hear that." Ace said, stumbling for words at first, but then he smiled in relief, knowing that she truly felt the same way about him.

Sarah giggled and then smiled at Ace a little as she realized that he had probably been waiting for her to say those words for a long time.

"I'm sorry about what you probably had to go through after, well back there in the cas--." Ace said as he suddenly stopped talking as he felt Sarah's finger on his lips.

"Don't worry about that. You did what you had to do to save me and for that I'm glad. I could never be mad at you for doing something like that for me." Sarah said as she removed her finger from Ace's lips.

Ace looked at Sarah and smiled back at her. "Thanks." Ace said.

"You're welcome and I want you to have this." Sarah said as she took her necklace off and placed it in Ace's hand.

"But this is the necklace that you told me before that it was the last reminder that you had of your grandfather." Ace said as he looked down at it and wondered exactly why Sarah would give him something so dear to her. He continued to look at it and noticed that there was a heart engraved on it with two wings crossed over the heart.

"I know..." Sarah said with a look on her face that told Ace he should just take it.

Ace looked back at Sarah. "But why Sarah? I can't take this. It's always been so dear to you. It's not mine to have." Ace said as he held it back out to Sarah in his hand.

Sarah put her hand on top of Ace's hand that had the necklace. "No Ace, I want you to have it. I'm...I'm giving it to you not only because it is said that the necklace can help those in need, but also because it symbolizes the bond between our hearts." Sarah as she took her hand off of Ace's, grabbing the necklace at the same time, and put the necklace around Ace's neck before he could say anything else.

"Okay fine, I'll keep it but only because you can be so stubborn sometimes." Ace said as he smiled somewhat at Sarah.

Sarah smiled back at Ace as she saw him smile at her. "But, just because I'm giving it to you, that doesn't mean that you can just lose it like you do everything else." Sarah said, grinning a little at Ace.

"Don't worry, I won't lose it." Ace said as he chuckled a little. At that moment he suddenly thought of something as he turned around and began to walk towards the door. "I'll be back soon. I need to go talk to Sora for a few minutes about something." Ace said.

"I'm going with you." Sarah said, walking up behind Ace.

"Okay, since I know that if I say no, then you're just going to keep being stubborn until I say that you can come anyway." Ace said as he sighed a little before a small smile appeared on his face. He then walked through the door and heard Sarah close the door as she walked out after him.

After a little guesswork, Ace and Sarah eventually arrived at Kairi's house and saw Sora talking to Kairi. "Hey Sora." Ace said as he waved his hand in the air towards Sora.

"Hey there Ace." Sora said as he saw Ace wave and waved back.

Ace and Sarah walked up to Sora. "Before I forget, here's that charm back." Ace said as he realized that he still had the Oathkeeper charm in his pocket and took it out and gave it to Sora. "Also Sora, we need to talk." Ace said as he pointed towards the beach.

"Oh, thanks a lot Ace. I had almost forgotten about asking for it back." Sora said as he put the charm in his pocket and told himself to give it back to Kairi later on. He began to walk off with Ace and Sarah as he heard Kairi say that she would stay at her house until they got back.

After they reached the beach, the three of them sat down on the sand and looked out at the expansive ocean. "So Ace, what did you need to talk to me about?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, I'm wondering as well." Sarah said, a little curious about what was on Ace's mind.

Ace straightened his arm out somewhat and pointed it at the ocean as he closed his eyes. Suddenly the keyblade appeared in a flash of bright light as he opened his eyes back up and looked at the weapon that he had been chosen to wield. "Well, it's just that I keep wondering about a few things. One, why was I chosen by the keyblade? Two, why do I have to face the darkness with this blade by my side? And three, is there ever going to be an end to what I am going to have to do with this blade? I've just got so many questions that seem to revolve around my connection to this blade." Ace asked hoping that he could get some answers to his questions.

Sora shook his head a little. "I'm sorry Ace but I don't have any answers to those questions." Sora said.

Ace looked down at the ground for a moment as he heard what Sora said. Suddenly he heard a voice in his head, the same voice that had spoken to him in his dream.

"_**Do you truly want the answers to your questions? If you want the answers, you will have to delve into the darkness of the abyss and search for them with your own two hands. No one else can help you. You must be the one to search for your answers, they are yours and only yours to find..."**_ The voice said as it faded away, almost as if it was never there to begin with.

'_Wait a second. What do you mean?' _Ace though urgently in his mind as he was suddenly shaken by Sarah and he looked at her with a slightly shocked look on his face for a moment.

"Ace, are you okay?" Sarah asked urgently as she stopped shaking Ace after she saw him look at her.

"What happened?" Sora asked as he looked concerned too.

"I just heard this voice for a second. It was the same voice from my dream the other night, the one where I got the keyblade. It told me that if I want the answers to my questions, then I would have to delve into the darkness of the abyss to find them. I wonder what that meant." Ace said, but he left out the part about him being the only one who could search for his answers.

"Kingdom Hearts." Sora said, even though it came out more like a whisper.

"Kingdom Hearts?" Ace asked, wondering what Sora was talking about.

"Yeah, it's the heart of all worlds. It's surrounded by an abyss that is made up of nothing but pure darkness." Sora explained.

"That's probably what that voice was talking about then. It probably means that my answers are waiting inside that place." Ace said as he realized that he had one problem with deciding to go there. "Sora, do you know how to get there?" Ace asked.

"Yeah, I think that I know a way to get there." Sora said as he began to walk away from Ace and Sarah and waved for them to follow him.

Ace turned around to look at Sarah. "Sarah, I'll be back soon. Just wait here where it's safe until then, okay?" Ace asked her as he began to start following Sora. He suddenly felt something holding his arm in place. He looked back and saw Sarah holding on to his arm, not willing to let him take a step further.

"Ace, I'm going with you guys. I'm not going to be separated from you again like before." Sarah said, looking up into Ace's cloudy blue eyes.

"No, I promise you that I will come back, but you can't come." Ace insisted as he looked into those fiery red eyes of Sarah's. He really didn't want to leave her again, but he couldn't let her come either.

"I'm coming. If you're worried about my safety, then I'll just stay back out of the way while you guys fight anything that attacks us." Sarah said.

Ace sighed a little under his breath. "Okay Sarah, you can come. I know when I'm beaten." Ace said as Sarah finally let go of his arm, smiling at him, and they began to catch up with Sora.

By the time that Ace and Sarah had caught up with Sora, he had stopped at what appeared to be the entrance to a cave that was covered by shrubs and vines.

Sora crouched down and began to walk in as he motioned Ace and Sarah to go in as well. "We always used to call this 'The Secret Place'. It was always Kairi's, Riku's, and my special hideout. We were the only ones who ever came here so it was perfect for just playing with each other, just getting away from everything, and all those kinds of things." Sora explained as he led them deeper into the cave until they stopped in front of a dark brown door and looked around to find drawings all over the walls around them.

"So you guys used to play in here?" Ace asked as he looked around at all the drawings and then leveled his eyes on the door in front of them. "So, what is this door doing here?" Ace asked.

"It's a door that leads to the heart of the world. Every world has a door that leads to its heart." Sora said as he walked up to the door but moved slightly to the side and motioned for Ace to open the door.

Ace nodded and moved towards the door but then stopped as he realized something weird about the door. There was no doorknob or handle on it. There was only a keyhole that was surrounded by some golden ornate shapes. "How am I supposed to open this?" Ace asked, but then he felt the keyblade appear in his hand and he realized that it was resonating with the door. _'I hope this works.'_ Ace hoped to himself as he brought the keyblade up in front of him and pointed it at the door. Suddenly the tip of the keyblade began to glow and a beam of light appeared at the tip and connected with the door. The door began to glow for a moment before it began to open slowly and then faster until it was wide open. As the door opened, the whole cave was bathed in the purest light of all, the kind of light that can only be found in the untainted innocence of children.

"This light. It's so calming and peaceful." Sarah whispered as she saw Ace and Sora looking like they wanted to say the same thing.

"Let's go. I've got a feeling that this light will guide us." Ace said, smiling a little at how the light felt as the keyblade disappeared from his hands. He looked around and then in front of him, noticing that they seemed to be walking on ground that was made of nothing but light. It was almost as if he was in paradise, especially considering the peaceful tranquility that encompassed everything around them. He felt the light seeming to push him from behind, almost as if it had taken on a physical form and was trying to help them as much as it could. Ace nodded his head to show that he understood what the light was trying to tell him and took a few steps forward.

"Okay, we'll follow your lead, Ace." Sarah said as she noticed Ace take a few steps forward and began to follow him as Sora began to follow the both of them through the light.


	13. Chapter 10 Battle of Light and Dark

**Chapter 10**

**Battle of Light and Dark:**

After a short while of walking through the light, the light seemed to disappear and become replaced by pure darkness. Ace began to slowly look up through the darkness at two huge white doors that stood in the distance. "Is this Kingdom Hearts?" Ace asked as he felt a cold shiver run through his body for a moment, probably because of all the darkness that surrounded them.

"Yeah, this is Kingdom Hearts; the Door to Light." Sora said as he noticed that Ace seemed to have a cold shiver for a moment.

Ace turned around to look at Sarah and noticed that she was shivering even worse than he had but she seemed to be recovering from it. "Remember Sarah, stay back here out of the battle and be careful." Ace said, hoping that she would stay out of it.

"I know. I know." Sarah said, wishing that there was some kind of way that she could help Ace and Sora.

Ace noticed the look on Sarah's face and knew it was the same look of wanting to help that he had always seen on her face from time to time. "Sarah, you're helping us by staying here. If you stay here then we can concentrate on finding my answers and then we can come back here to this spot. And after that, we can go back home for good with everything that has happened put behind us." Ace said with a slight comforting smile on his face. He then looked over at Sora and saw him nod before the two of them plunged into the darkness and began to head towards the door itself. After a few minutes, they finally reached the door and stopped in front of it. Ace and Sora then held their hands out in front of them and their keyblades appeared in twin bursts of light. They then pointed their keyblades at the door and two beams of light shot from the keyblades and pierced through the door causing it to begin to open.

"Here we go." Ace said to Sora as he began to see hundreds upon thousands of Heartless on the other side of the door, desperately trying to get out. "Okay...This could be a problem." Ace muttered as he gulped a little at the numbers of Heartless.

"This isn't going to be easy." Sora said under his breath with a slight disbelieving look in his eyes for a moment before they regained their normal confidence.

"So what if it isn't going to be easy, there's no way that we can lose. They're just Heartless and no matter how many there are we can still beat them." Ace said, grinning a little at Sora even though he felt his own confidence swaying a little. Even before the grin began to fade away from his face, Ace had already begun to get into his attack stance and was ready to win this fight. There was no way that he could let himself lose here, at this place, he still had to find his answers.

"Yeah, you're right. There's no way that Keybladers can lose to Heartless." Sora said as he got ready to fight as well. Ace and Sora both gripped their weapons harder and noticed that the door had opened enough for the Heartless to begin to come through. They both took one last deep breath as they charged into the innumerable numbers of Heartless.

'_Please be careful Ace.'_ Sarah prayed to herself as she saw the staggering numbers of Heartless headed straight for Ace and Sora.

Ace kicked one Heartless that had appeared in front of him, sending it spiraling through the air as he quickly spun around and sliced several that had tried to attack him from behind.

At the same time, Sora had just used Ragnarok to blow away several Heartless before he speared through another set of Heartless using Sonic Blade.

Ace and Sora continued fighting for a while longer before they finally realized that they had hardly made a dent in the number of Heartless.

"Darn it...They just keep coming without any end in sight...There's just too many still coming." Ace said to Sora as they began fighting back to back against the Heartless for a moment to try to split up the waves of Heartless somewhat.

"I know, but we can't give up. Just don't forget, you were the one saying that they couldn't beat us." Sora said as he blocked a Heartless' claw with his keyblade and then shredded its body with a single slash.

Ace chuckled a little. "Yeah, I guess that I can't go back on my word now. Plus, it was my stupid idea to come here in the first place." Ace said as the Heartless began to force him and Sora apart and broke up their back to back strategy. As soon as they split up, Ace saw a Heartless behind him out of the corner of his eye. He suddenly flipped backwards and killed the Heartless with a single slash. "Whew...That was a little too close." Ace muttered to himself as he felt the strain of the battle on his body beginning to affect him a little. He still hadn't been able to build up his stamina much at all since the keyblade appeared in his life.

After several more minutes of fighting, Ace began to let his guard down for a second and saw a Heartless leap in front of him. He knew that he didn't have enough time to slash it because it was already so close. "Uh-oh." Ace muttered as he jumped backwards into the air to try to gain a little distance.

The Heartless leaped at Ace and he destroyed it with one slash but several more Heartless began to appear in mid-air around him while he was still in the air.

Ace did a quick spin with Blazing Angel and killed the Heartless surrounding him, but then another one leaped in front of him and slashed him. The claw sliced Ace across his chest and his chest began to bleed somewhat from the deep slash but he just gritted his teeth against the pain. "Now that was way too close." Ace muttered as he realized just how close that slash had been to being fatal.

The Heartless tried to slash Ace again, but this time he ducked and the slash instead sliced through the chain that Sarah's necklace was attached to and the necklace fell from Ace's neck towards the ground.

"Not a chance...There's no way that I'm going to lose that necklace. Sarah will kill me if I do." Ace said as he sliced the Heartless in half as he began to fall towards the ground but caught the necklace in time. "Got it..." Ace whispered to himself as he fell to his knees for a second as his chest began to bleed and hurt worse. "I won't die here against you Heartless of all things." Ace said through clenched teeth as he gripped the necklace in his left hand as it began to glow.

After a few moments, the light faded from Ace's left hand to reveal that the necklace had become the keychain for a second keyblade. The keyblade seemed to resemble his first keyblade but the colors were different, half of the keyblade was a fiery red while the other half was an oceanic blue. The overall shape of the keyblade mirrored Blazing Angel almost identically. "Dual Souls..." Ace whispered to himself as he saw the second keyblade appear and saw the words appear in his mind. "I've only got one choice, if I want to find my answers...I'm sorry Sarah...I will return soon, but I have to find my answers first. I understand now what that voice meant by that only I could find my own answers." Ace said to himself as he gripped his keyblades even harder now that he realized that he couldn't keep his promise to Sarah, to never have to leave again and be able to stay with her. He began to get back on his feet as he got back into his attack stance. His eyes began to show not only confidence but also sadness as he began to charge through the Heartless once more, headed directly for the door of Kingdom Hearts itself.

"No Ace! You can't!" Sora yelled as he finally realized what Ace was trying to do or at least thought that he did.

Ace reached the door and leapt over the Heartless, past the door and into the other side, where the Heartless kept appearing from but not before he flashed Sarah a quick smile.

Sarah saw Ace leap through the door to the other side. "Ace!" Sarah yelled as she saw him go through the door, but not before he turned around for a second and flashed her a quick smile as he leapt through to the other side.

Ace landed on the other side of the door and killed several Heartless with both of his keyblades. He turned around and looked at Sora almost urgently. "Sora, close the door now!" Ace yelled from the other side as he continued to try to hold the Heartless off. He knew that the only way that he would be able to find his answers would be in the darkest abyss and for that to happen there couldn't be any light, right?

"I won't do that Ace." Sora said as he shook his head a little and killed another Heartless.

"Sora! You have to close the door, trust me." Ace said as he jumped up and used a double Strike Raid to kill several Heartless before he caught both keyblades again.

"Ace, we'll get you back somehow I promise." Sora said as he pointed his keyblade at the door and a beam of light shot out from it.

"Thank you Sora." Ace said as he shot a beam from each of his keyblades that combined into one beam in mid-air. He looked at Sarah as he knew that he wouldn't have another chance for a long time. "Don't worry Sarah. I promise that I will be back soon and I will bring your necklace back with me." Ace said, smiling as the two beams collided and the door began to close.

Sarah heard Ace and saw the door close. "Okay Ace, I'll be here waiting for you. My heart and my light will always be with you to bring you back to me." Sarah said, trying to smile a little at Ace as she put her hand over her heart.

The door fully closed and Sora finished off the remaining Heartless that came out before the door was closed. Sora ran back to Sarah as fast as he could to make sure that she was still okay. "Sarah, are you okay?" Sora asked as his keyblade disappeared.

"I'm okay." Sarah said back sadly as she looked at Sora, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Let's get back to Destiny Islands, okay?" Sora asked.

"Okay...Please come back Ace..." Sarah whispered as she took one last look at the two huge white doors that now separated her and Ace.

At that moment, a sphere of light appeared around Sora and Sarah that carried them back to Destiny Islands.

Even though Sora and Sarah were safely back on the islands, Ace was still fighting the Heartless with both of his keyblades. "They're finally thinning out." Ace said to himself as he finally killed the last Heartless that he could see in the pitch black darkness. The two keyblades disappeared and the necklace was left in his hand. "I have to find a way back to Sarah, but first I need to find my answers." Ace said to himself as he tied the necklace back around his neck and looked around at the darkness surrounding him. After a moment, he began to walk off into the darkness, searching for his answers.


	14. Chapter 11 Epilogue

**Chapter 11**

**Epilogue:**

It's been almost a whole day since the events that occurred at the doors of Kingdom Hearts. As soon as Sarah and Sora got back to the islands, Sora told her that she was always welcome to stay at his, Kairi's or Riku's houses if she wanted or needed to. She thanked Sora for the offer and since that offer she'd been standing at the beach the whole day, staring out across the surface of the ocean. As Sarah watched the ocean, all her memories of the past several years with Ace began to play out in her mind. She felt her knees getting weaker as tears began to spill down her cheeks and onto her clothes. She did her best to sit down on the rough sand before she completely collapsed and felt the cool ocean waves lap against her legs, almost as if it was trying to comfort her. As she felt the cool water hit her legs, she looked back up at the ocean that went as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, she began to smile a little and she stopped crying as she remembered what Ace said.

"I'm sorry, but I'll always be with you. Whenever you want to see me, just close your eyes and imagine me. I promise that I'll be there then."

She slowly closed her eyes and she was sure that she felt Ace's presence. In her mind, she could still feel the ocean's waves against her legs, but now it felt as if the ocean itself was Ace. For a second, she felt a calming touch on her shoulders, almost as if somebody was trying to comfort her. She opened her eyes and she was sure that she saw Ace's gloved hand on her shoulder, but as soon as she blinked, the hand was gone.

She smiled a little as she began to stand up and looked out across the whole ocean as her thoughts went back to Ace. His calming presence and grayish-blue eyes, just like that of the ocean. He had always reminded her of the ocean and she knew that just like the ocean always surrounds the islands, Ace would always be there with her, surrounding and protecting her from everything that lay beyond the sea.

* * *

At that same moment, Ace was still wandering through the darkness trying to find a way out. He was already drained somewhat because of his long battle against the Heartless and he was beginning to feel the effects of the strain that he had put on his body. He gritted his teeth a little as he felt some pain in his chest from the injury that he got from a Heartless back during the fight, but he continued to keep on walking.

As he continued to walk on, he began to see all of his memories that he shared with Sarah play out in his mind. A few tears fell down his cheeks at all the memories before he wiped them away with the back of his hand. After a few moments, he began to shiver a little and his breath came out foggy and cold. He tried to warm himself up a little by rubbing his hands together, but it didn't help any at all. This darkness around him seemed to be trying to freeze him until he died. He remembered about how warm the light always seemed to be and compared to that warmness, the darkness was freezing cold.

He then slowly closed his eyes and gripped Sarah's necklace with his right hand as he felt what seemed like a warm fire from behind him that seemed to spread around him and help to warm him up. Suddenly he opened his eyes and looked behind him. His eyes widened for a second as he was certain that he saw Sarah there, but as soon as he blinked, she was gone.

He smiled a little as he began to look out at the cold darkness around him as his thoughts went back to Sarah. Her fiery spirit and blazing eyes, just like that of a warming fire. She had always reminded him of fire and he knew that just like fire always drives away the cold, Sarah would always be there with him in the cold darkness, keeping him warm and protecting him from the freezing cold in the darkness of the unknown.

**_To Be Continued In Destiny and Fate Part II: Darkness Hidden in Memories_**

AN: And there you have it, everyone. Destiny and Fate Part I is officially finished. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story all the way through Part I. I'm sorry that this first part has seemed almost like a repeat of Sora's journey but I promise that Part II and Part III are much different. The only reason that I wrote Part I like I did was because I wanted to show that at least at first Ace was a lot like Sora and would do the same thing as him under the same circumstances, but Parts II and III are going to show just how much he changes. Well, I'll post Part II up sometime soon so I hope that you guys will continue to stick with Destiny and Fate all the way through to the end. Thanks again everyone.


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